Guido Rodriguez faces West Ham United axe after what team-mate did v Chelsea
West Ham United have made a poor start to their 2024/25 Premier League season.
The Hammers filled their fans with hope after what seemed like a fairly strong transfer window but, evidently, that hasn’t been the case.
Their form can be put down to several things such as poor cohesion, having no sense of direction or just simply a lack of motivation.
Their most recent Premier League game against Chelsea even resulted in a 3-0 loss but surprisingly, there was a shining light for the Hammers from the fixture.
Enter Andy Irving. The midfielder has finally made his way into Julen Lopetegui’s squad and despite a summer of speculation, chose to stay and fight for his place [Rhoshane Thomas, 30 August].
The Scotsman – yet to make his full debut – was brought on in the 72nd minute against Chelsea and despite being on the pitch for just 18 minutes, he managed to top the charts in many different areas.
Andy Irving West Ham United performance v Chelsea in numbers
From statistics collected by HammersHubWHUFC on X (23 September), Irving topped the charts in areas such as most passes (21), most tackles won (two) and even managed to maintain a 100 per cent pass completion rate.
While an 18-minute cameo obviously isn’t enough time to fully settle into a game, it feels as if the defensive midfielder did a pretty good job at holding his own against one of the big six teams.
The 24-year-old is still young enough and has plenty of room to develop. The fact that teams such as Celtic were interested in acquiring his services during the summer shows how good of a player he actually is [Anthony Joseph, 30 August].
Of course, there’s still plenty of time for things to change and Irving could find himself loaned out in January but, with the current form Guido Rodriguez finds himself in, giving the Scotsman a run in the team at his expense might not be the worst idea.
In other West Ham news, Julen Lopetegui clashed with Guido Rodriguez during their 3-0 loss v Chelsea.
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